Dani Scott at the womens Euros 2022- A Leah Williamson story

The final vs Germany - part 2

Then it was time to go back out for the second half. I walked out with Beth. We both still had the belief that we could win this.

We are ready and the whistle goes for the second half. Germany starts off on the front foot. We need to do something to change the way the game is going

4 minutes into the second half Millie makes a mistake and Wassmuth bursts free she shoots but its gathered by Mary.

It seems to be all Germany at the moment.

In the 55th minute Sarina makes a double sub Fran and Ellen go off. Russo and Toone are on.

In the space of the next two minutes two Germany players are booked.

In the 62nd minute Beth goes down. Lucy runs over and is massaging her leg. Medical staff lead Beth off the pitch. Looks like she’s not coming back on. I hope she is ok.

Then Kiera plays a ball into Ella. She lobs it over the oncoming keeper. It’s gone in.

We are up 1-0 in the final. We all run over to celebrate with her.

Kelly is now on to replace Beth.

3 minutes later Magull shoots and it hits the post.

In the 78th minute Magull shoots again but Leah is there to block it .

1 minute later Magull scores after finishing a low cross from Wassmuth.

I see heads go down. But it’s 1-1 this is not over.

I scream to the girls “come on. This isn’t over we are still in this. Lets keep going”

In the 88th minute Sarina makes another double sub Alex Greenwood and Jill Scott were coming on to replace Me and Stanway.

My final was over I left everything out on the pitch today. I have the belief that the rest of the girls can finish the job.

There was four added minutes but nothing really happened. We will have to win this in extra time.

We all huddled together Sarina was giving the girls that were on the pitch their instructions and some words of encouragement. I was standing opposite Leah and I could see how mentally drained she was. She had done so much for this tournament on and off the pitch.

As the girls left the huddle to go to their positions, I got hold of Leah’s shoulders she was stood in front of me. She looked into my eyes and I said “You got this” that was all she needed. She gave me a hug then went back onto the pitch.

I watched from the bench there was a drop off in intensity. Russo was booked for a late challenge. Not long after Jill clashed with Lohmann and she was fuming. I had never seen Jill like this before. That was the highlights of the first half of extra time .

 They restarted for the final period of extra time. I had my fingers crossed we couldn’t let this be decided on penalties that would be too much for my heart to take.

Then in the 108th minute the first shot of extra time it was from Toone but Frohms saved well.

Then Kelly wins a corner. She turns to the crowd to hype them up and they cheer louder.

Hemp goes across to take the corner. She delivers it into the box Germany can’t deal with it. Lucy has kept it alive she crosses then with her second attempt Chloe Kelly pokes the ball into the back of the net. She looks over to see if she is flagged but it stays down and the goal is given. She takes her shirt off and runs over to us players on the bench. We are all screaming the crowd is so loud.

Ellen helps Chloe put her shirt back on. We are up 2-1 in the final.

Of course Chloe is booked for the celebration but she doesn’t care that was raw emotion right there.

At 115 minutes Leah starts calling for the whistle. Jill had to tell her that there was still 5 minutes left to play.

Most of the last 5 minutes were played by the corner flag. Toone, Kelly and Russo were managing the game well. There was 2 minutes added on but we continued to play in the corner then that is it the final whistle goes we are European Champions.

All of the players on the bench ran onto the pitch to celebrate with our team mates.

I saw Leah collapse to her knees crying. Millie goes over to hug her. We are all so happy. I manage to hug and celebrate with all my team mates except Leah.

I’m standing on the pitch by myself. I take it all in. I look up at the sky and say “’That was for you Mya. I love you” Lucy must of saw cos she ran over and engulfed me in a hug. This is when the tears started falling. Tears of joy because of winning the euros and grief mixed into one.

I’m guessing Beth and Leah saw this because they soon joined in on the hug.

After a bit I had calmed down and I pulled away.

All the players went to go and celebrate with their families. Leah turned and looked at me and said come on let’s go see the family. This actually made me smile. We walked over to Leah’s Mum she hugged her and then Leah went to hug her dad and the rest of her family.

Amanda looked at me and said “I’m proud of you. You have been great this tournament. We will always be your family”

I hugged her and said “Thank you. You don’t know how much that means” We pulled away and we both looked at Leah. Amanda said “I think I do”

I knew in that moment that Amanda knew how I felt about her daughter.

It was now time for the medal ceremony.

Lena Oberforf won the young player of the tournament.

Mary Earps won the golden glove.

Beth Mead won the golden boot and the player of the tournament.

Germany went and got there second place medals. We formed a guard of honour and applauded them. They had played so well but this was our tournament.

Then it was our turn to collect our winners medals. I was near the back of the line so I watched nearly everyone walk up with the proud look and the smiles on their faces. Then it was my turn. I walked up collected my medal and shook hands with Prince William. I walked over to the stage but before I got there I stopped and looked up. I knew she would be proud of me. I smiled and walked over to the stage. I stood next to Lauren. We saw Leah collect her medal that smile was everything to me. She was given the trophy. She walked over to just in front of where I was standing and Leah and Millie lifted the trophy above their heads. The crowd erupted and so did we.

When we finally got back to the changing rooms there was a lot of singing and dancing. Even Sarina joined in.

Sarina was then called to a press conference. Jill said “Lets go and crash it”

Of course we all wanted to so we went to the conference room entered singing it’s coming home. Mary and Lucy got up and danced on the table. It didn’t look very stable so I’m surprised they didn’t fall off. With that we made our way back to the changing rooms.

After a number of times we were told that we had to get on the coach so we could go to our winners party where our family and friends were back at the hotel.